


Sick Day

by AmberSkye



Series: Christine and Erik make a long distance relationship work and other adventures [3]
Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-07 01:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14070288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmberSkye/pseuds/AmberSkye
Summary: Christine gets the flu. Erik gets weird and overprotective about it. He and Nadir show up in Christine's apartment.Or: Christine can't even get sick without Erik's dark past getting brought up, but at least there are baked goods to get them through it.(one of these days those two need to have a long chat)





	Sick Day

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [【中文翻译】Sick Day 生病的日子](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14243334) by [SueandRabbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SueandRabbit/pseuds/SueandRabbit)



She’d been sniffling for days. But with the weather in California practically giving her whiplash from being eighty degrees one day and sixty the next with it actually raining on occasion, she thought it was just that added to some allergies and nothing at all was wrong. 

Erik disagreed with her. Wholeheartedly. He was a regular mother hen with her, telling her to drink tea and get to sleep early and even not sing so as not to make her throat sore. At that last one she’d finally given him a lecture. It was a common one for her, something along the lines of ‘I’m a grown woman and can happily take care of myself, thanks so much.’

He’d gone all quiet and said “My apologies,” and logged off. 

A few times, when they had first started talking, he’d done this over far less than an argument. She had sometimes felt like she was walking on eggshells around him, but she’d thought those days were long gone by now. She walked into the kitchen where Meg was studying for her sports med class and plopped herself down in the chair. Meg looked up blearily -- it was pretty late -- saw her expression, and closed the book. “Girl talk?”  
“Girl talk. I’m confused.” She related the conversation.

Meg pondered this for awhile. “You know, Sorelli does something really similar. She’s gone through a lot of drama to get her position since she’s only nineteen, so whenever something comes up that she doesn’t want to talk about, she gets really defensive and actually starts a fight over something really dumb with me. Well, before we figured out what was going on. Anyway, it was weird stuff, like when we went camping and I was talking about how you and I would go as kids? I guess when she was young she invited some friends camping and no one said yes. I can’t even imagine! But I didn’t know that till way later, since she didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe it's something like that.”

“Meg, if you ever suddenly decide you hate dancing, you should be a counsellor. How’d you fix it?”  
“Well, ah, I started crying when she was arguing with me once and it went from there. But it was sad, so maybe don’t do that.”   
“I’m sorry, Meg. I’m glad it's all worked out.”   
“It was a bonding moment, I guess. You’ll get there! If not now, at least when you can see each other in person every day. Then he can’t run away,” she said with a grin.  
Christine laughed. “You’re right about that! Okay, I’m calm now. Need help studying?”  
“God, yes. Quiz me on anything from chapters fifteen to twenty.”   
“Anything?”   
“Anything. The teacher is anti-study guide,” she said in annoyance.  
“Alright then. On page 350, in figure 1--” Christine started.  
Meg looked at her with mouth open for a a second and then started laughing. “You little shit,”  
“Aw, thank you.” 

Between laughing and actually studying, she went to bed feeling much better.

And woke up with a sore throat and feeling lightheaded. “Crap,” she said. Or tried to say. Her voice was mostly gone. She rolled over, which took way too much effort, and looked at the clock. It was only six. Christine threw an arm over her eyes. It was going to be one of those days where you were just waiting for it to be time to sleep again, wasn’t it? She would be able to get absolutely nothing of worth done.

Bracing herself, she got up and followed her morning routine, shivering all the while. Even the tap water from the sink felt cold on her hands. But the thermostat was at 68, so there was no real reason to turn it up. She dragged her backpack into her room and read awhile, but her eyes were unfocused enough it wasn’t working out. She tried to go back to sleep, but being horizontal just left her with a headache and she couldn’t sleep sitting up.

She was also very dramatic about the whole situation. Meg came in around eight, as she was getting up to leave for work. “Hey girl, you don’t look too good.”  
“I know,” she groaned, sounding like death wormed over. “I am sick after all.”  
“Shit, I bet it's that flu that’s been going around. Do you need me to call out and stay here?”  
“Meg, you’re an angel, but no. Go work. Maybe bring back some good drugs.”   
“Sure, Chris. I’ll be back in eight hours, hang in there.” 

She did, with some soup and crackers and when Meg got home, actual medicine. Meg made her tea, but it didn’t taste great just then, so she let it get cold. When it was that evening, she made herself shower and put on real clothes so she could call Erik without him getting too worried. “Good evening Christine, before we begin I should apologize for last night --”  
“Hey, babe. I accept, you were just looking out for me. And you were right anyway. I got sick. Stupidly sick, this hit me out of nowhere.”   
“Do you feel as bad as you sound?” he asked with concern.   
“Thanks,” she drawled, but the tone made her cough. “Probably. I’m actually doing better since Meg got me medicine.”  
“This is better? You --” he let out a harsh sigh. “I do not want to overstep my boundaries.”  
“You mean because of last night? I thought you were being a mother hen, but I could use that right about now. Don’t worry about me. I just lay around a few days but I’ll be fine.”  
“What have you taken?”  
“Just a dose of Dayquil.”  
“And have you had plenty of water?”

She stayed quiet and offered a sheepish smile. “I’ll be fine, really.”   
He looked at her anxiously. “Sickness can be an insidious thing, Christine, you should really take care of yourself.”  
“Hey, when you’re with me, you can take care of me however you want. Until then I’m gonna hang in there my way. Speaking of, I’m going to hit the hay. Don’t worry, Erik, really.”   
They said their goodbyes, but he still seemed uneasy.

She probably shouldn't have been surprised, with her parting comment, to wake up the next morning -- around noon, she'd been blissfully able to sleep -- and hear three voices in the kitchen. She figured Meg was just watching videos on her phone, so meandered into the shower and out to the kitchen in PJs, then stopped to blink a few times as her brain tried to connect Meg and Nadir laughing while Erik looked vaguely uncomfortable, sitting around the table. 

“Uuh,” she said eloquently.   
Erik's head shot up and he was on his feet. “Christine. You're awake. You should be in bed.”  
It took her a minute longer to piece together the three non-sequiturs, but then sighed. She tried to say ‘I’m sick, not dying’ but her voice was mostly gone so she just took his seat instead and he lay one hand on her shoulder, another on her still too-warm forehead. As much as she had just tried to complain about him being overbearing, she relaxed into his cool touch and hummed at the feeling.   
“I'll make up the tea.” Nadir vacated the table to busy himself in her kitchen like he knew where everything was. Granted, it was small and not well stocked, so it wasn't hard to figure out.  
“Nadir texted your phone last night to see how you were doing. Isn't he sweet? Anyway I replied and we got to talking, and between Erik and Nadir they are probably as good as any clinic doctor so i invited them over since I knew I couldn't get you to a real doctor.” Meg said. “Now, I’ll be heading off to hang out with Sorelli. Oh, speaking of, now might be a good time for that chat, Chris. See you guys. Nice properly meeting you two.” 

And she fled, the coward. “You have a very good friend, Christine,” Erik murmured, touching his mask reflexively before returning the hand to her shoulder. She leaned her head back into his chest. Christine had explained everything, once she’d gotten back home from her Christmas excursion, and Meg had sworn never to pry so long as Christine gave her all the details she wanted. Even though on Valentine’s Day she’d been dying to. Meg really was a good friend.   
“I’m so lucky. Good best friend and a good boyfriend.” She closed her eyes, comfortable.

“And a good tea provider. Drink up.” Nadir clinked a mug down in front of her and she instinctually took a sip and almost spat it back out, the shock of the bitter flavor making her eyes shoot open.   
“Not a good tea provider! That’s disgusting, are you trying to poison me?” Nadir fell silent and looked contemplative. Erik flinched from behind her. “Nadir, could you let Erik and I have a chat for a few moments?”  
“Of course. I need to get something from the car anyway.” 

Of course Nadir rented a car for them. She couldn’t help but snicker at the idea of a petulant Erik stuck in the passenger seat of a car, wanting to be anywhere but and annoying Nadir to no end. A smile ghosted over Nadir’s face, so he must have thought something similar. The second the door clicked shut, Erik demanded, “Drink the tea.”  
She sighed but took a long sip, trying not to let it wash over her tongue. “What is in it?”  
“A blend of herbs that will help you. I added ginger to help mask the taste,” he said.   
“You. . .made tea? From scratch?”  
“Of course I did. You weren’t even drinking anything that would help you.”  
“It’s just the flu, Erik.”  
“Perhaps. But last night you said --”  
“I know.” She wanted to derail that conversation for now. “So what landmine did I stumble on just now with the bad tea comment?”   
Erik fell silent, and then wound around the chair to sit in the vacant one next to her. She could almost feel his mood dropping. Or maybe it was her stomach protesting the foul tea. But she scooted closer to him and took a hand anyway. “Hey,” she said, getting him to look up. “Can you talk about it?”  
“I don’t like to talk about Persia. I told you the general nature of my time there, before. . .but I did not mention Nadir had a son.” 

Christine looked up in surprise. “He does?”  
“Did,” Erik corrected gently. Her face fell. “He had a rare disease. It was incurable and incredibly painful. He’d lost his sight early on. I would make him small things, when I had the time. Toys that would make noise for him to play with or tell him stories from the Western world that would star him instead. He lost function in his limbs, and grew more distant with the pain. Nadir hardly had the time to watch him enough as it was, as his mother passed on as well. And his immune system was so, so weak. He would get sick every month, it seemed. And I would make him homemade teas to help. But when they wouldn’t, any longer, Nadir asked for me --”

A long pause. The story had already shocked her awake and it didn’t take long for her to put together what he was saying with her comment earlier. Poison. “Your tea wasn’t made to heal him, in the end.”   
“No. It numbed his pain and he was asleep before his breathing stopped. Or so Nadir tells me. Nadir held him the whole time, but I left like a coward.”

“Erik,” she breathed, turning into him and holding him close to her. “No. Nadir spent his last moments with his son, out of pain, you were no coward.” And she was rather ungrateful that the two men came all this way for her, with their pasts laying heavily on their minds, just to make her feel better. “That’s why you reacted so strongly to me being sick?”  
He sighed. “Yes, and I am sorry.”   
“No, no. Don’t be sorry for worrying. Just let me know that there’s a reason and I’ll accept that, Erik.” She took a few sips of the tea as if to prove her point.   
“Don’t you--”  
“We’ll talk about it, and the rest of your time in Persia, and before. But I think it’d be best to do in smaller bits, or at least when Nadir isn’t waiting outside for us.”  
Erik looked relieved. “Thank you, Christine. I’ll go get him.”  
“I’ll finish this tea. And Erik?” She waited for him to turn. “I love you.”   
“And I love you, Christine.” 

Nadir came back inside, grinning ear to ear like the cat that got the canary. “Guess who left his wallet in the car?”  
Christine almost spit out the last drink of tea because she laughed at the sight of Nadir walking in with three dusty pink boxes and a drink carrier from the bakery down the street. It wasn’t a cheap place. “There had better be nutrition in there, Nadir,” Erik growled.   
Nadir winked at her. “Struffoli, jelly pastries, these things that look like decorative waffles --”  
“Pizzelles,” Christine clarified. “They’re made one at a time in a handheld iron over the stove at that bakery, like they traditionally are I guess.”  
“That would explain the price!” Christine started laughing again. “And, before Erik kills me, mixed fruits.”

Erik dosed her with more DayQuil and they feasted on baked goods and fruit. Christine felt much better, enough to be up to hosting properly, but Nadir waved them off (“Are you kidding? I’m in California. I’m going to walk around, you watch a movie or something.”)

That was a pretty good idea, so she curled up next to Erik and they watched Monsters, Inc, and Christine gasped and started coughing when she realized it was now almost five. “I didn’t know it was so late. What happened to the day?”  
“You slept for most of it, which is good. You needed it. You’ll get to sleep early tonight, too.”   
“Alright.” Erik gave her The Look. She’d missed The Look. She smiled. “I’m going to miss you. When do you leave?”  
“As soon as Nadir gets back from sightseeing and realizes what time it is,” Erik said with a smirk. Christine giggled.   
“I’m sorry I’ve either been contrary, out of it, or coughing on you most of your trip here.”   
“Don’t be. I’m just happy to spend time with you.”   
“You too, love.”

They talked for a few more minutes about her classes, his music, how Nadir got a job in New York after all and was darkening Erik’s doorstep all the time now. About how he ordered pizza once while she was out and the delivery boy looked like he’d seen a ghost when Nadir opened the door for him.  
“Nadir was so confused as to why he reacted like that. I was just there trying not to laugh and sit with a straight face while Nadir kept going on about how there was nothing he could see on his face, and his clothes were normal. . .”  
They were both laughing about this when the door slammed open. “Erik! Why didn’t you call me?”  
“You seemed to have been having a good time, Daroga,” he drawled. He smirked at Christine and kissed her hesitantly, sill unused to the idea. “I’ll see you soon, Christine. I left more tea. Drink it, and get to sleep early. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”   
“Text me whenever. Thanks again, love.” 

Nadir stopped outside their door, gentleman that he was, and Erik left, talking over Nadir’s complaints the whole way out.

**Author's Note:**

> Erik totally got sick after this and didn't mention it to Christine.


End file.
